The image comes from the original Microsoft PDF document referenced at the bottom of the post. As you can see, there are 3 physcial hosts. The one on the left has two standard licenses, while the two others do have three standard licenses. You can move VMs from the left to the middle and right hosts, because they have 3 Windows Server licenses assigned 6VMs each maxi.

If they only had two licenses assigned, then you would not be able to do that. I’m also assuming that there are at least 2 physical hosts. You see, we’re almost there. The 11th VM will make difference. The Windows Server licensing is cheaper when running more than 10 VMs and taking the Datacenter license. Again, I’ll demonstrate with an image, where you’ll see that the requirements to run 10VMs per host must be kept.

I’m assuming that during the normal workload five VMs run on each host. For example, you want to license a dual-processor 8 cores per CPU server with four virtual machines. According to the Windows Server Standard licensing model, you need to buy 16 dual-core Window Server Standard licenses 2 sets of licenses closing all physical cores or 8 dual-core Datacenter licenses you can upgrade Windows Server edition without reinstalling. Note that the licensing procedure is as follows: first the physical cores are covered, and then the virtual machine instances.

According to the current Microsoft prices, it is worth to buy the Windows Server Datacenter edition if you are going to run 14 or more virtual machines on one physical host. If you use virtualization on your physical server with Windows Server , you can use the host OS only to maintain and manage the Hyper-V role and virtual machines.

You cannot install Windows Server on a physical server, run two VMs on it and get three full-fledged Windows server instances for your tasks. Software Assurance SA provides the right to transfer the product license between physical hosts for most Microsoft server products. But Windows Server is an exception to this rule. According to the licensing agreement, the license can be migrated between the hosts once in 90 days.

How to license a virtualization farm, in which VMs can move between hypervisors host OSs? In this scenario, you will have to buy that number of licenses for each physical server covering the maximum number of virtual machines that can be run on it at any time including the high availability scenarios when all virtual machines of the farm are moved to the one of the hosts. In the case of the Datacenter edition, one set of licenses will be sufficient for each physical host, covering all cores in the minimum configuration, 8 Datacenter dual-core licenses.

Since this license allows you to run an unlimited number of VMs. Therefore, you should choose the Windows Server license depending on the maximum number of VMs on a single host.

Below are some examples of calculating Windows Server licenses for physical hosts when using virtualization. Example 1. There is a Hyper-V cluster of 5 hosts.

Each server has 2 processors with 20 cores. For example, it is possible to run Essential edition of Server as virtual machine utilizing one of two available virtual instances in Standard edition as shown in the figure below. This eliminates the needs to purchase Essential edition of Server Download Now! Unlike Windows Server Essentials non-R2 , you can now run a single instance of a virtual machine. The server licensing rights have been expanded, allowing you to install an instance of Essentials on your physical server to run the Hyper-V role with none of the other roles and features of the Essentials Experience installed , and a second instance of Essentials as a virtual machine VM on that same server with all the Essentials Experience roles and features.

Definition of a socket is a CPU or physical processor. Logical cores are not counted as sockets. A single license of Standard and Datacenter edition covers up to two physical processors per physical server.

Standard edition allows up to 2 virtual instances while the Datacenter edition allows unlimited number of virtual instances. For example, a Windows Server R2 Standard edition installed on a physical server with one socket CPU can support up to two instances of virtual machines. These virtual machines can be Server R2 Standard or Essentials edition. Similarly, if you install a Windows Server R2 Datacenter edition , then you can install an unlimited number of virtual machines.

Scenario 2 : Install Server Standard Edition on a physical server with 1 physical processor, running 8 instances of virtual machines. A total of 50 users will be accessing the server. Remember that a single Standard edition license covers up to two physical processors and up to two instances of virtual machines. Since the requirement is to run 8 instances of virtual machines, we need four Standard edition licenses. Windows Server R2 provides a wide range of new and enhanced features and capabilities spanning server virtualization, storage, software-defined networking, server management and automation, web and application platform, access and information protection, virtual desktop infrastructure, and more.

Windows Server R2 is a proven, enterprise-class cloud and datacenter platform that can scale to run your largest workloads while enabling robust recovery options to protect against service outages. It helps accelerate time to value by simplifying your underlying infrastructure and allowing you to reduce cost by taking advantage of industry-standard hardware.

Windows Server R2 helps you build, deploy and scale applications and web sites quickly, and gives you the flexibility to move workloads between on-premises environments and the cloud.

It enables you to provide flexible, remote access to corporate resources while managing identities across your datacenter and federated into the cloud, and it helps you protect critical business information. Product Website Windows Server solutions across on-premises and cloud. Microsoft Docs Windows Server technical documentation. Upgrade Options Overview of Windows Server upgrades.

Microsoft windows server 2012 datacenter licensing vmware free download. Please select your Windows Server 2012 R2 download

 
This document discusses how Microsoft Windows Server is licensed when used with virtualization technologies like. VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft. Windows Server R2 captures Microsoft’s experience of delivering global-scale cloud services to provide an enterprise-class server and.

Solved: VMware + Microsoft Windows Server Licenses – VMware Technology Network VMTN

 
 
Dec 29,  · Licensing questioning Windows Server R2 Datacenter on VMware Hi, We are setting up a new VXrail server with 5 hosts, these hosts are running VMware enterprise plus version 6. May 23,  · Solution: Well, if you plan to use a Datacenter license, you will want to select one of the 2 Datacenter options. Hello All, So recently we just purchased Server data center. I recently created a new file server that I am building on server standard. 11 rows · Windows Server Standard and Datacenter editions continue to require Windows Server .